


loser for your love

by leeinthesky



Category: New Amsterdam (TV 2018)
Genre: Almost no plot, Drabble, F/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, anniversary fic, big hopes for s3, everyone is happy and in love, hi guys it's been a minute, nothing about this is serious, sharpwin kids are mentioned, straight fluff, talk of renewing vows, where is georgia you ask? dead, zero angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:13:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leeinthesky/pseuds/leeinthesky
Summary: i'll always be a loser for your love.max opens his eyes, and all he sees is her. he wouldn't want it any other way.
Relationships: Max Goodwin/Helen Sharpe
Comments: 3
Kudos: 49





	loser for your love

**Author's Note:**

> hiii guys it's been a HOT minute. it's goldman anniversary day so i wrote this in twenty minutes in my university library because we need SOMETHING to commemorate !!! this is not long and there's hardly any plot but i felt like posting something as i haven't written for my own enjoyment in forever. enjoy <3
> 
> title and lyrics from the song "boy i'm just a loser for your love" by good morning

max wakes up gently. all he is aware of is the warm sun on his arms and face and the quiet roar of the city surrounding him and the soft fleece of the blanket beneath him, but when his eyes open all he can see is her.

“hi sleepy head,” helen says affectionately, pushing max’s hair out of his eyes. it’s much too long to really be professional, but everyone seems to like the shaggy frat boy look. helen never passes up an opportunity to run her hands through it. “have a good nap?”

they’re in stuyvesant square, enjoying the beginning of spring after a horribly long winter. the weather is finally nice again but the park is mostly quiet, only moms and their kids and a few dogs around. technically they’re on their lunch break, but max doesn’t remember falling asleep or have any clue what time it is now. helen must have called dora, although the hospital had been so slow when they left that it probably didn’t matter. 

max turns his head slightly to kiss the hand she’s propped up on. “yes. what time is it?”

“time for you to get a watch,” she answers quickly, like she was waiting for him to ask and jumping the gun like she always does when she has a joke to tell. the kids definitely got their sense of humor from her.

max laughs heartily, maybe a little more than the joke warrants but always sincere. even before they were married—before they were together, even—helen has always been the funniest person to him. he remembers the first time she’d joked around with him ( _pretend it’s a panda_ , she’d said, and even though max was on the verge of tears over his wife his kid his cancer it had still made him laugh until he choked) and thinks about how it had warmed his heart unlike anything else. it’s been years since then (god he’s old), but max still remembers how radiant she’d looked in those bright hospital lights surrounded by a halo of fluorescence. 

“what are you thinking about?” helen smoothes away a crease between his brow—more wrinkle than crease, really, how did she still look so good?

“you,” he smiles softly, unable and unwilling to keep it away. he’d spent too long hiding the way he looked at her to hold himself back now. “us. how stupid i used to be.”

it’s helen’s turn to frown now. her braids swing back and forth as she shakes her head. “we were both stupid. at least you had the excuse of being young.”

“i was _not_ —”

“you were like, thirty-five, max! that’s young!”

“i was running a _hospital_ , you don’t even get to do that if you’re not old!”

it’s an argument they’ve been having for years. it’s much more half-assed than it used to be, both of them too familiar with each other’s defenses to do anything more than laugh their way through it. 

“if you were old then, what does that make us now?” helen asks. it’s playful, but there’s something a little too real in the forced lightness of her voice.

max sits up to kiss her. “i am now a decrepit old man who has to take blood pressure and iron pills and falls asleep during the day.” he kisses her again until she lies back with a sigh, effectively swapping their earlier positions. “you, on the other hand, are still a goddess amongst us mere mortals and we are lucky to be graced with your presence.”

all she says is “you’re _anemic_ , max. you have to take blood pressure meds and iron pills,” not disputing the “goddess” part because 1) she knows it’s true, and 2) because she knows if she tries to fight him on this he’ll pull out his “top 100 reasons helen sharpe is a goddess” list. _again_. but she looks pleased nonetheless, a pretty little blush creeping up her neck as she looks up at him. max could never get tired of her eyes, or the way she can look so trusting and adoringly at him. it’ll always take his breath away.

“let's get married,” he says suddenly. max feels his eyes widen and he knows he must look almost comical, but he hadn’t expected to just blurt it out. he’d had a _plan_ , dammit.

helen looks just as shocked. “we _are_ married,” she says, flashing her ring at him. 

“remarried, i mean. let’s renew our vows.” helen still is looking at him like he’s gained an extra head. “look, i had an actual plan to ask this time because last time i kind of just asked you without anything special like you deserve, but it seems like you’re just always gonna catch me off guard. i’m sorry for that, by the way. it’s been so long and i should be able to keep my cool around you at this point but i just _can’t_ , but maybe you don’t want to renew them. i mean we have so much coming up with luna’s graduation and—”

“max.” helen cuts off his babbling with a laugh that sounds almost giddy. “max, of course i want to renew our vows. of _course_ i do.”

“oh,” is all he can say, “good.”

and then max kisses her deeply because that’s not even half of what he wants to say to her, and when helen pushes back up against him, he knows she understands. he’s overcome with how much he loves her, loves her so much that it still gives him a head rush and leaves him dizzy and wanting more. he’ll never get over it.

“do you want to go home?” he asks her, lips still ghosting hers.

helen doesn’t seem like she wants to break away either. “kids?”

“lauren’s picking them up. sleepover at aunt lauren’s,” max smiles. he’d meant to surprise her with a date night later, but they could reschedule. “happy anniversary, helen sharpe.”

helen’s smile is blinding. “happy anniversary, max goodwin. thanks for loving me.”

“ _forever_ ,” he answers, and he’s never meant anything more.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments much appreciated <3 come yell at me about these idiots and also about goldman on twitter, where i'm @heiensharpe


End file.
